ITV banks on Coogan show

A new sketch show starring Steve Coogan is the latest weapon in ITV's bid to redress a dramatic slump in ratings among younger viewers.

Monkey Trousers, which launches this week, features Coogan in his first mainstream TV role for two years and his first big show for ITV1.

The Alan Partridge creator plays a creepy toy-shop owner in the six-part series, which boasts a core cast of 12 bigname British comedy actors. Mackenzie Crook plays a "snot-afflicted" newlywed with bride Patsy Palmer; Ronni Ancona and Alistair McGowan star in a Footballers' Wives spoof; Vic Reeves is a disbelieving vicar; and ex-Cold Feet star John Thomson is a morning TV chef with a proclivity for the f-word.

The series will go head to head with Channel 4's new Johnny Vegas show, 18 Stone Of Idiot, launching next week, and classic comedy repeats on BBC2.

ITV bosses are hoping that Monkey Trousers - co-produced by Coogan's company Baby Cow and Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's Pett Productions - will help to claw back younger viewers after recent ratings showed one fifth of 16- to 34-year-olds had abandoned the channel in the past 12 months.

Executive producer Lisa Clark said she believed Monkey Trousers would appeal equally to young audiences and ITV's loyal core of older mainstream viewers.